


Reanimated Meg

by TrickrTreason



Category: Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Slow Burn, asexual herbert west, re-animated meg
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 23:40:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14862516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrickrTreason/pseuds/TrickrTreason
Summary: Meg is back from the dead, Dan has a big dumb crush and Herbert is oblivious. Romance ensues





	Reanimated Meg

**Author's Note:**

> This is honestly just self-indulgent fluff at it's peak. Probably gonna have slow updates, I'm gonna be working in a summer camp. Enjoy!

“Now Meg, you have to promise me-”

“I will Dan.”

“-you have to promise me you’ll listen to Herbert this time-”

“I will Dan.”

“-and not punch him in the face again.” A pause. 

“He was condescending me.” 

“He condescends everyone. Please Meg, for me?”

“Okay.” 

Dan Cain and his recently late girlfriend Megan Halsey were sitting in Dan and Herbert’s shared living room while Herbert was nursing a black eye in the kitchen, the black eye he earned after his first attempt at “explaining” Meg’s reanimation process to her. 

To Meg this was all very surreal, one moment she was in the hospital and then she was in Dan’s basement, two weeks later with slightly greenish skin and a slowly healing bruise around her neck from where she was strangled. Death hadn’t really felt like anything, it was just nothing, no time passed, no awareness, she might have well just been knocked out cold. Now she was sitting alone on a beat up sofa waiting for her boyfriend to lure his manic, possessive and absolutely irritating “roommate” out of the kitchen. Meg wasn’t sure exactly what happened during the two weeks she was dead but she could just feel that Dan and Herbert’s relationship changed somehow. She didn’t need to know, she just needed the little homewrecker to know that Dan was hers first. 

Speaking of. 

Dan was leading Herbert back into the room, his eye swollen and his pink lips gnarled into a scowl. He was carrying his medical bag of tricks, arms completely stiff like the brunette Jeffrey Dahmer he is. He sat across from her disdainfully in the red armchair. If they could agree on anything it’s that Dan has terrible taste in furniture. 

“Miss Halsey,” he said, purposely clipping his consonants. 

“West,” she replied coolly. Dan would say they had one other thing in common, when angry they looked so nearly identical it was frightening. And sexy. 

Herbert took his glasses off and cleaned them against his shirt, a nervous tic he picked up. He cleared his throat before beginning. 

“Now, as I explained, you’ll need to take 68 units of reagent a day, preferably in the morning. This is just the standard amount and should be adjusted if you know you’re going to do any physically strenuous activities.” His voice went slightly hoarse at “physically strenuous”, obvious what he was implying and obvious he had no bedside manner. He reached into his bag and handed Meg a syringe and bottle of reagent. “I trust you know how to do this?” he asked her, voice dripping with mockery.

Meg dug her nails into her palms and gave Herbert a snarl of a smile. “You’d be surprised on what I know how to do,” she spat, taking the objects from Herbert. His face blanched of color ever so slightly before he regained his composure. 

“I’ve also elected to put you on a vegetarian diet for the first five weeks of your reanimation, just to deter any cravings of human flesh you might have. “ 

“You can’t make me, it’s not like you’ll be cooking my meals!” Meg retorted. Herbert’s eyes went wide and looked from Dan to Meg to back to Dan. Luckily, Dan was better at this game than Herbert was. 

“I’ll cook your meals,” Dan chimed in. “I can prepackaged things for when I’m at work, you won’t have to lift a finger.” He was met with disgusted looks on both ends. That’s when the yelling started. 

“Really Dan! You can’t just expect me to play along as West’s creepy new test subject!,” Meg yelled. 

“Daniel I can’t have you playing housewife to your little girlfriend while we have serious work to be done!” 

“Hey!” Dan barked out, effectively silencing the two. “If this thing is gonna work out we’re gonna have to learn how to live with each other.” He slumped back down defeatedly on the couch. “Boundaries, respect, shit like that. Herbert, Meg isn’t just gonna bend to your will like I do. She doesn't work that way. And Meg, you gotta respect that while Herbert may be a whack-a-doo, he a whack-a-doo with your best health and safety in mind. Okay guys?” 

Dan watched them muddle and mull over their options, lips pursed and eyes narrowed before eventually coming to a solemn agreement that they’d try to get along. Key word is try. Herbert cleared his throat again, preparing yet another statement. 

“Meagan, if you agree to the diet regiment I will assist you in your cooking,” Hebert said carefully. Meg gave him a once over. 

“What makes you so qualified?”

“I’ve been a vegetarian since I was fourteen.” 

Meg stared at him for a while before sighing, a strand of blonde hair falling in her face. She held out a hand. 

“Deal,” she said. 

“Deal,” Herbert replied, grasping her hand with his own. 

It was the fourth night before Meg accepted herbert’s help in the kitchen, deciding that even though she’s dead, she can’t survive on mozzarella sticks alone. It was strange enough seeing Herbert out of the basement, but even stranger to see him bustling around the kitchen, black tie tucked into his apron and knife used for chopping vegetables instead of dismembering household pets. His voice was commanding yet soft enough as to not wake Dan who had worked third shift at the hospital the night before. Despite the easy to follow instructions she was given, Meg was finding herself increasingly distracted by Herbert sashaying to and fro in the kitchen. 

“Megan? Miss Halsey? Are you paying attention?” Herbert said, leaning towards Meg to snap her out of her dreamlike trance. She just noticed how huge his eyes were behind his thick lenses. All she could do was smile, there was no way she was inflating his ego anymore than it already was, claiming he distracts her. 

“You swish your hips when you’re in the cooking zone,” she replied. Herbert flushed a bright red. 

“I would prefer you not stare at my hips in the future,” he hissed. “I’m sure this is something Dan won’t appreciate hearing about.” Meg shrugged and shifted slightly in her kitchen chair. 

“I’m sure Dan wouldn’t mind staring,” she replied evenly. Death had given Meg a new chance at life and she wasn’t about to go through her new life tiptoeing around her real thoughts just to save face and feelings, and certainly not at the expense of her own happiness. She’s been friends with Dan since they were in high school, she knows when he’s harbouring a crush. Watching confusion flicker through Herbert’s huge magnified eyes and his eyebrow twitch upward was worth it. 

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean,” he replied, voice even but biting. Meg tilted her head back, a barking laugh rising from her throat. 

“You’re sweet,” Meg said, her voice like sugar but her smile revealing her true meaning. It was something along the lines of “Either Herbert is playing stupid with me or he actually doesn’t know what I mean.” Along those lines. 

“You’re weird,” Herbert snarled before going back to his cooking. 

It only took until around 10 at night for Herbert to finally confront Meg. Curled up on the couch reading some trashy novel she got at the dollar store she watched Herbert storm into the living room, hands on his hips. 

“Okay but what did you mean by that,” he barked. 

“What did I mean by what?” she replied sweetly, the picture of playing dumb. 

“The things you said about Dan,” he said, voice rising in pitch. “What did you mean about that?” By the look on his face, he’s obviously been obsessing over this since dinner. Meg sighed and put down her book, as fun as it would be to continue teasing Herbert the poor guy looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel. 

“Herbert just calm down, I was just teasing you,” she said, raising her hands in defense. Herbert’s face turn to confusion before softening, he collapsed bonelessly next to her on the couch. Dan had informed him teasing was something that “friends” did, he wasn’t well acquainted with the subject. 

“Refrain from doing that in the future,” he replied exasperatedly, rubbing at his face. “I don’t like teasing, I don’t get it and I never have.” Meg glanced over and watch the mad scientist curl into himself self-consciously and really wished she didn’t feel bad for him.

“Hey it’s okay, it’s alright to have boundaries, and,” Meg could almost taste the regret she’d have. “I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable.” And Meg could feel her shame of relief when Herbert’s lips quirked into a tiny smile. “Do you want to watch a movie with me?” Goddammit. She can see why Dan fell so far, the instant Herbert, that rabid ferret of a man, shows any vulnerability the urge to protect and comfort him kicks in. That’s the only reasonable explanation for how he made it to his late twenties. 

“I wouldn’t object to a documentary,” he said in a low voice. Meg smiled at him and lightly elbowed him in the side. 

“It’s a deal.”

And when Dan woke up at six in the morning and found Meg and Herbert curled around each other with the tv still on, he couldn’t help but smile and take several pictures of posterity. No one would ever believe him without photographic evidence, not even Meg and Herbert.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are highly appreciated!


End file.
